The Patapsco Hotel is historic granite building located in

Ellicott City, Maryland Ellicott City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in, and the county seat of, Howard County, Maryland, United States. Part of the Baltimore metropolitan area, its population was 65,834 at the 2010 census, making it the mo ...

, on the western bank of the

Patapsco River The Patapsco River mainstem is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 river in central Maryland that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The river's tidal port ...

. The current Patapsco Hotel is built with materials from an older granite construction hotel on the same site and is known as the Thomas' Patapsco Hotel, Wilson Patapsco Hotel, Stewart's Hotel, and McGowan's Hotel. The original Thomas' Hotel was four stories tall made of local quarried granite stone block. The rear wall of the first floor is imbedded into a solid granite hillside. It served as a stagecoach stop along the National Pike road. The hotel was later called Stewart's Hotel featuring a bar and bowling alley. In 1806, Chief Little Turtle of the Miami people, Chief of the Rusheville people, Beaver Crow of the Delawares, Chiefs of the Shawanese, and the chief Raven of the Potowatomies visited George Ellicott staying at his home and the Hotel while returning from a visit to Washington, D.C. The second floor balcony led to and served as an unloading terminal for the B&O Railroad at Ellicott's Mills.

Henry Clay Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state, al ...

once performed a speech from the balcony during a presidential campaign. During the civil war, the hotel was considered a host of Southern

Sedition Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, estab ...

. The hotel operated as late as 1879. For a period the hotel was used for an ice house for a period. In 1920, the hotel owned by Hezekiah I Thomas was not in use with the windows broken and the county condemned the property. In 1926, a wall adjacent to the railroad collapsed, causing streetcar service to be halted. Passenger cars had to halt as an inspector checked for enlargement of cracks before they could pass the building. A 12-bay-wide, four-bay-deep three-story building was constructed on the same site with the same granite stones named the Patapsco Hotel. The original foundation was used, including some standing walls. The building was converted into an apartment house in the 1940s. The building now houses shops on the bottom floor and apartments above. The property later was purchased by Samuel H. Caplan, who operated several long-standing businesses in Ellicott City.

References

{{Reflist Ellicott City, Maryland Houses in Howard County, Maryland Houses completed in 1854

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